A difficulty highlighted by the research involved ‘mainstreaming’ innovative projects that were originally seed-funded by philanthropics. A common experience was for a small amount of funding to be given to a homelessness service by a philanthropic agency to pilot a program, but when the philanthropic funding ran out it was difficult to find appropriate government support to continue the programs.

From 15 to 18 August 2013 Big hART and Centenary of Canberra present an interactive, multi-media, bed installation about homelessness in Civic Square, Canberra, called The Winter Bed Vigil, with support from Common Ground.

Ten years ago, I met a 25-year-old employee of Bank of America in Delaware. He had Down Syndrome and was enthusiastically making t-shirts on a silk screen press. He told me how thrilled he was to be working.

I asked him what he had done before getting that job. He told me he had sat at home for six years watching TV with his parents. And during that time, his parents watched after their disheartened son.

As the Immigration Minister Tony Burke investigates the option of moving teenager asylum seekers out of detention and into local homes in Tasmania, the Tasmanian state government gets ready to introduce working with children checks to screen people more thoroughly.

The Coalition will ramp up its hardline stance on refugees on Friday, announcing that almost 32,000 asylum seekers who have already arrived in Australia by boat will never get permanent settlement as well as stripping them of the right to appeal to the courts.

The Coalition would also introduce indefinite work-for-the-dole obligations for those found to be refugees.

The Australia-PNG regional resettlement arrangement and the “no advantage” policy are based on the incorrect assumption that asylum seekers come to Australia because it’s an “easy” entry point into the affluent Western lifestyle via established people smuggler networks. This makes the issue out to be about “pull” factors and diminishes “push” factors for refugees.

... The first steps towards a “solution”? A regional refugee summit that brings together civil society, humanitarian groups, international organisations, academics and politicians.

When it comes to the welfare state, it’s clear there’s a conversation to be had. There needs to be an unpicking of the false dichotomy between "workers" and people on benefits. There needs to be a shift away from the focus on capping benefits to providing a living wage. There’s a nuanced debate waiting about how disabled people can be given the right support to work. That’s why, last night, Channel 4 decided to dedicate an hour of prime time television to asking an unemployed, sick woman to lift a potato and to making an old man cry.

Benefits Britain served to enable an orgy of hate speech against disabled people, and it is difficult to conclude that this was unintended, with Karen clearly selected and filmed in such a way (the amputee sewing instructor for instance) as to cause maximum outrage. C4 and the producers may argue that this is what the audience clearly wanted, but their role as a responsible public-service broadcaster is not to enable the mob in its hate of a vulnerable minority, but to inform the public as to the reality those same people face.

Over the last 30 years governments have reduced their role in the provision of services, contracting them mainly to community and for-profit organisations. Most recently they have sought single contractors that can tender for all the services. Some of these have been large charitable organisations, particularly in health care. But many have been multinational corporations which tender for a wide variety of services. So, a visitor to immigration detention centres may be surprised to find people in Serco uniforms mowing their nature strips and also staffing the centre.

One result of this change is that in order to continue to serve the disadvantaged, smaller community agencies, which once tendered for relatively small projects, will be forced to combine with one another or to enter partnerships with for-profit groups.

Social investment is big in Australia or, at least, it soon will be. The state government of New South Wales (NSW) is currently in the process of piloting Australia's first Social Benefit Bonds (SBB), the equivalent of Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) in the UK.

Across the world these ancient institutions are dying on the vine and we sit at home surfing the net or watching TV. Okay – perhaps that’s a little unfair – many of us are actually quite busy with both partners working long hours and loads of time spent running children to their next extra curricula activity. However, I wonder if these excuses are a little too convenient and a cover for something deeper going on?

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Catholic Social Services Australia represents a national network of 52 Catholic social service organisations that provide direct support to hundreds of thousands of people in need each year on behalf of the Catholic Church. Our agencies provide a diverse range of support from assisting women and children escaping family violence, housing and homelessness support, to mental health and disability services. They also work in partnership with Indigenous people, and offer support and services to people seeking asylum and those who are refugees.